Thursday, August 4, 2011

Phoenix

Just thought I'd keep everyone posted on where I'm up to, what I've been doing etc. We got to Phoenix last weekend, on Saturday avo. First thing you figure out when you get here is that your in the middle of the desert and its SO HOT! The car was getting stuffy so i rolled the windows down and just got this heat wave exploding in my face, and this was before we were even in Arizona, we were just coming to the end of california.. Every now and then for the rest of the journey I'd just roll down the window to check the temp and every time was SO much hotter! It was crazy. So its been over 40 degrees celsius here everyday, even at night, I find it too hot to be outside.

Right now its monsoon season, so it's quite humid as well (Arizona's normally real dry) but the epic thing about that is pretty much every night there's been these amazing thunder storms off in the distance. We'll be driving around and there will just be flashes every 5 or 10 seconds. Sometimes you'll even see these big lightning bolts, its so sick!

Phoenix is big and suburban.. there isn't really a downtown, just miles and miles of suburbs, and everything's painted the same colour.. There's 4 million people living here, so the size of NZ in this big suburb out in the desert. And right now its so hot that everyone just lives indoors, its so weird. Coming from NZ where you stay inside because its colder outside, right now we stay inside because its too hot outside.

It's been such a great week though, I'm LOVING phoenix. Cody's been amazing with introducing me to people, already I've met so many cool people. I watched Cody's band play a pool party the saturday night we got here, went to his MASSIVE church on Sunday night, we've spent a lot of time just hanging out with different people, on monday we went to this epic coffee shop, had to teach the guy how to make a flat white again.. I've gotten used to saying 'double latte but easy on the froth there bro' and then they go 'froth?' and then cody goes 'he means foam man'. then we checked out Tempe, which is a little bit out of Phoenix. Got some more Record shopping in.. Got some CHEAP as dylan, springsteen, doors, eagles etc. After Tempe we cruised over to this guy Robs house. Rob is a crazy music collector. He has the biggest record collection I've ever seen. He's got these framed records everywhere, some of which are mindblowing! In one of them, on the cover of the record is a photo with a big group of people sitting on some steps, Tim Buckley's in the photo, and Rob showed us his mum in the picture and then he showed us himself sitting on the corner picking his nose!! Incredible. He's a got a signed copy of Jeff Buckley's Grace album, he said when he met Jeff, he told him he'd met his father tim when he was 5 years old... To which jeff replied 'you and me both man' !!!!!!!! so sick! So we had an epic time looking at all his stuff, watched some Dylan and Led Zep videos and he cooked us a real tasty dinner.. burritos. Such a good night!

I swear every single meal I've had in Phoenix until last night (when we had in and out burger) has been mexican.. burritos, tacos, quesadillas.. I love mexican food right now. every time we drive past a del taco or a taco bell I have to stop and have a chicken burrito haha

Tuesday night I played a show at this little bar, was kind of unsure because I don't really know anyone here, but it was SO sick, all the dudes I'd met over the last few days came out to watch and were super stoked on my set.. It was really sweet. Cody played a few songs with me on the mando... Here's some photos:

Cody and Me playing Girl From The North Country

That's Cody's store manager Mike on the left and his older brother Butch on the right

That's brent on the right and Jordan on the left, epic dudes

This is a table full of people I've met here, they'd all cheer really loud when I finished a song haha

This is me chewing my hair

Good times

So that was sick.

Wednesday we went to a mall where they had a vans store, Cody's friend Jason is the manager. He gave us half off anything! So sick! I got a pair of brand new vans for 22 dollars american! Then we went to this mexican place called Chipotle. I could only eat half my 6 dollar chicken burrito. So mean, then Cody went to work so I went and helped his brother Butch do some prep work on a house he was painting. We had a sick day hanging out and getting it done.

Now it's Thursday, not too sure what today has in store.. But tomorrow, me and Butch and his wife Heidi are taking a little trip to THE GRAND CANYON! I'm soooooo fricken stoked! So hopefully I'll have some more interesting pictures for the blog by tomorrow. Can't wait to go check out the grand canyon! Then I fly out at 5 30 am on Saturday to settle down in Georgia. It's all happening very quick but I'm having such a good time. Missing home a little! Wouldn't mind a flat white and game of MD down at Alleluya haha